How to focus in a world of distractions?

This year, I have made a commitment to my team about sharing with them the key lessons I learn from my interactions with others. Here's a promise to post one article each week. In case you find that I have not posted a piece, do call me out :) Here is the first one. Inspired by a TED talk I recently saw.

How to focus in a world of distraction?

With technology becoming so ingrained in our lives, we are literally jumping from one screen to another. We are now experts in jumping from our phones to tablets, from smartwatches to computers and if that was not enough, switching between scores of browser tabs that we have open at any point in time.

The question I am left asking after I saw this TED talk by Chris Bailey was, how do we focus our attention in order to think deeper, become less distracted, and be happier?

Chris' talk is titled 'How to Get Your Brain to Focus' and it gave me all the answers I was looking for!

About Chris

Chris Bailey was recently described as "the most productive man you'd ever hope to meet" by TED. He is the best-selling author of Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project, which have been translated into sixteen languages. His TED talk is probably a culmination of a series of self-experiments that yielded surprising results for him. This is what I loved about this talk! Chris is not just one of those academic experts that talk from merely theoretical knowledge. He actually experienced each thing that he talks about and that makes the lessons far meatier.

Chris realized that of all the devices his mobile was where he was spending most of his time. Sounds like you and me! No? So he decided to follow a simple rule. That he would not use his phone for more than 30 minutes a day.

He noticed that three things happened after about a week.

• His attention span grew
• He could get more ideas
• And he could figure out more things to work on!

He then talks about an intriguing study on human attention span. It says, "it turns out that when we work in front of a computer, especially if our phone is nearby, we only focus on one thing for 40 seconds before switching to something else."

To me, this was both surprising and alarming! In the world we live in, we ought to be egging in what Prof. Adam Grant calls, deep work. And here we are. Running around from one screen to another!

As Chris mentions, our brains are overstimulated. We are trapped in this distraction -> dopamine -> craving -> distraction loop!

Chris did another experiment. He called it "one month of boredom". He asked his followers about the most boring thing he could do. Some of the recommendations were funny and some, insightful. I found the one where he read the fine print of iTunes the funniest. When was the last time you read that fine print?

Oh, and the result? He observes a similar effect! It took him about a week to adjust his mind to a lower level of stimulation. He felt his attention span expanding! He was able to concentrate more easily.

He concludes the talk by recommending some fundamental shifts in how we think about our attention. No, I will not tell you what those are. Go watch the TED talk and discover for yourself. When you do, come back and tell me what you learnt. And if you do need a challenge from me, let me know. I would be happy to take away your phone :)